High touch, high techNew Providence Cancer Center debuts |
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“High Tech” no longer means gleaming chrome and monochromatic walls and floors, reminiscent of a laboratory. At least not in the patient areas at the new Providence Cancer Center. The center opened February at Providence Portland Medical Center. “The minute you walk in that door, you know this was done to make patients feel more at home,” says Calvin Harrison, the center’s executive director. All the services are located in the same building, so treatment doesn’t require traveling across town. “The art and the colors and the finishes lend themselves to being very soothing. We paid a lot of attention to that sort of detail,” Harrison says. It’s something like a hotel, with wood throughout, Northwest art, gardens and natural light.
That’s an appropriate analogy, because this place is designed to be welcoming to families. The rooms are large, with places for family members to sleep. There is a kitchenette, separate sleeping rooms, showers and laundry facilities. “Providence for many years has believed in treating the whole person,” Harrison says. That means encouraging family support as well as including space for complementary therapies—massage, acupuncture, nutrition—and a learning center alongside the traditional allopathic medicine. But just because the ambiance is akin to a spa does not mean technology has been shorted. New to the Northwest is a Gamma Knife Perfexion, which boasts noninvasive radiosurgery for head and neck cancers and accuracy to within one half millimeter. Other high-tech technology includes intensity modulation radiation therapy, high dose-rate brachytherapy therapy, 3D conformal radiation therapy and image-guided radiation therapy. “We are heavily involved in laboratory research as well,” Harrison says. The lab space has doubled and Providence plans to increase research with a focus on exploring how the immune system might play a part in preventing and curing cancer. |
More about the new Providence Cancer Center Two members of the design team helped focus the planning on patients and family. Lee Martin, RN, oncology nurse manager, and Lindi Goins, oncology nurse, are also cancer survivors. The Portland Tribune tells their story… Providence Portland's own web site has more information: |
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